Earthfall Part 3: The Mind Bomb: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 21:19, 13 June 2014

« The Transformers: Robots in Disguise #30 »
"Earthfall Part 3: The Mind Bomb"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published June 11, 2014
Cover date June 2014
Written by John Barber
Art by Andrew Griffith (present day)
Casey Coller (flashback pgs 1-6)
Brendan Cahill (flashback pgs 16-18)
Colors by Josh Perez (present day)
Joana Lafuente (flashbacks)
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2014)

It's Devastator versus Galvatron as Prowl's dangerous gambit plays out, forcing the Earth Defense Command to tip their hand.

Synopsis

Ten million years ago, during the first Cybertronian civil war, Galvatron fights the Battle of Aegiax against the Ancient Headmasters, slaughtering his way through the entire tribe until only two remain. As one falls to his cannon, the last, Myskrion, is able to run Galvatron through with his polearm, but the wound has no effect—Galvatron simply charges his opponent with the weapon still sticking out his body, fatally impaling him with it. Myskrion's furious Headmaster partner disconnects and tries to maul Galvatron, but winds up being torn in half. As he surveys the field of corpses, Galvatron is approached by a stranger who introduces himself as Alpha Trion, and offers to bestow upon Galvatron everything he has ever wanted...

Four months ago, the Decepticons return to their spacecraft in orbit above Earth following their meeting with the Earth Defense Command. With Galvatron's disgust over the alliance they have forged with the humans nakedly apparent, Soundwave explains his position—his fascination with the fact that it was Earth that brought about the end of the Transformers' war, and his belief that without Megatron leading the Decepticons down a destructive path, humanity will naturally side with them against the Autobots. Galvatron has little time for the argument, as he did not live through the era of Autobot oppression, but when Rumble scoffs, the enraged Gavatron slams him off a wall. Soundwave remains stoic, and insists they will gain the resources they need through truth and cooperation, rather than deceit and violence.

In the town of Poverty Flat, Devastator drives Galvatron into the ground with one strike, then turns to swiping the attacking Decepticons out of the air. Galvatron is quick to recover, however, and resumes his battle with Devastator over Soundwave's protests. The outraged Marissa Faireborn finds her communication with General Witwicky cut off as Soundwave erects a jamming field around the town to prevent any information making it out, forcing the EDC to withdraw outside his range so that contact can be established with the orchestrator of their contingency plan in the event of the Decepticons going off-mission: Dr. Sanjay Bharwaney. The doctor activates a brainwave-scrambling "mind bomb" that incapacitates the Decepticons, allowing Faireborn to call up Skywarp—whose damaged form is integrated with the Decepticons' orbiting ship—and have him remotely teleport all the Decepticons back to their craft. Devastator disengages back into Prowl and the Constructicons and they and the other Autobots quickly depart aboard Sky Lynx, leaving the EDC too busy with damage control to follow. Wiping away an energon "nosebleed", Prowl explains to an angry Optimus Prime that it had been obvious to him from the outset that the EDC had wanted the presence of Cybertronians on Earth to remain a secret, so he chose to take things public with Devastator in order to make their enemies' lives difficult. As Cosmos radios in with an update on the EDC's cover measures, Prowl horrifies his leader with his pleasant surprise at the fact the organization isn't just killing everyone in town.

One month ago, Arcee, Prowl, and Sideswipe watch as Windblade gives Alpha Trion's message to Optimus. Prowl is curious about Arcee's reaction to the appearance of new Female Transformers, but Arcee is surprised to find she feels nothing at all. Prowl opines that, as Camineans, Windblade and her fellow new arrivals are as different from Arcee as they are from any other "regular" Cybertronian; Sideswipe puts his foot in it, however, when he grumbles about missing the simple old days of Autobots versus Decepticons, before nobody knew who they could trust. Arcee takes offense and leaves the group to talk to Optimus, wishing to find out more about the recent passing of her friend Hardhead. Prime assures her that he died trying to save everyone, and that his killer has been disposed of; satisfied, Arcee voices her second request, asking to join Prime's mission to Earth.

Prowl and Optimus argue all the way back to the Ark-7, with Prime refuting the idea that the humans are their enemies, and Prowl pointing out that they had a weapon capable of disabling a Cybertronian brain. Jetfire regretfully offers evidence that backs up Prowl's hypothesis: he detected a Cybertronian brain pattern behind the "mind bomb", and the microbots that attacked the Ark were based on Cybertronian neurology, suggesting that the EDC has access to a Cybertronian brain for study... a brain belonging, Prowl is sure, to Alpha Trion. As the team sets course for the origin point of the mind bomb's signal, traced to the Marshall Islands, Scavenger sneaks away and opens up a comm channel...

In the Decepticons' spaceship, Galvatron takes out his rage on the fittings and fixtures until Astrotrain tells him to stop and becomes a target for his rage instead. Galvatron insists they take revenge on the humans, but Soundwave refuses, deeming "the mission" to important; Galvatron dismisses his goals as a farce, but Soundwave calmly informs him that he has found the location of Galvatron's goal... Scavenger, his spy among the Autobots, has provided them with the location of Alpha Trion!

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans Others

Quotes

"Calm yourself, warrior. I come in peace. Perhaps you know the term? It means the absence of war."
"I am aware of the word. In my land, we pronounced it "conquest"."

—Alpha Trion and Galvatron


"Are you prepared to die, Galvatron?"
"Always. But that has never been a real concern."

—Devastator and Galvatron


"Did Prowl just get, like, way dumber?"
"It's the mass-displacement. Even Prowl's fat head can't handle the brain/size ratio of Devastator."

—Jazz and Arcee


"When I smash you, you geriatric insect—you know what they'll call my fist? They'll name it progress!"

—Devastator


"The humans betrayed us!"
"Stop smashing things."
"Did you just issue me an order, Spacebus?"
"Uh, my name's Astrotrain... and, uh... it was more a suggestion..."

—Galvatron and Astrotrain

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Galvatron's conquest of the "Ancient Headmasters" was first mentioned in issue #21. At the time, it was merely patching over a continuity error that was created with the introduction of the first of these Headmasters, Thinkbox, in The Transformers: Heart of Darkness #3. How times change!
  • After Galvatron rips Myskrion's partner in half, Alpha Trion wonders if he enjoys the action, alluding to his future tearing in half of Megatron in issue #24.
  • Skywarp is evidently still recovering from the malfunction of his teleporting powers that happened back in issue #24, and seems to have been wired into the Decepticon ship's system to direct his power and even enable heretofore unseen remote teleportation of others.
  • The "Thirteen Tribes" were first mentioned in More than Meets the Eye #27. See "Transformers references", below, for some further analysis of what we learn about them in this issue.
  • Sanjay Bharwaney originally appeared in the Bumblebee mini-series, and most recently made a return in Spotlight: Bumblebee.
  • The flashback to one month ago follows directly from the similar scene in issue #28, even repeating part of Optimus and Windblade's conversation from that sequence.
  • Hardhead died in More than Meets the Eye #25. Reference is made to the time he and Arcee spent together on Gorlam Prime, between Revelation and Heart of Darkness.

Transformers references

  • Galvatron's ancient "barbarian" body draws particular inspiration from his original Generation 1 toy. In particular, his arm cannon is based on the hand-held gun the toy came with.
  • The significance of the thirteen tribes should be lost on no-one, hearkening as they do to the thirteen original Transformers. That link is solidified further this issue, as the leader of the tribe of Ancient Headmasters is named as "Nexus"—presumably Nexus Prime, one of the thirteen in other continuities. Strengthening the allusion, Galvatron refers to "Nexus' enigma"; per The Covenant of Primus, Nexus Prime possessed an object known as the Enigma of Combination, which granted him the power to divide and re-combine his body. And Headmasters are certainly a form of combination...
  • Alpha Trion's alternate mode in ancient times is the hovercraft form Coller designed for him while working on the Ironhide mini-series, which previously appeared only in concept art.
  • The design of the Decepticons' spacecraft is inspired by the Revenge, the ship Unicron bestowed on Galvatron in The Transformers: The Movie, with its distinctive arced side protrusions.

Errors

  • The flashback to one month ago on Cybertron is mistakenly labeled as being six months into the past.

Other trivia

  • After last issue appeared to imply a floating timescale that placed the events of All Hail Megatron only three years before this storyline, this issue has Colonel Witwicky state that the attack took place eight years ago. Assuming that this story is taking place six months in the relative future from its printing date of mid-2014, that would date All Hail to around late 2006/early 2007, fairly in-keeping with when we have understood it to occur up to now. Apparently the "Occupy" protests just took place a lot earlier in IDW continuity!

Covers (4)

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